[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 77 (Wednesday, May 26, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6042-S6043]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS--H.R. 1664

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, yesterday afternoon the Committee on 
Appropriations met and reported, en bloc, the Fiscal Year 2000 
Department of Defense Appropriation Bill, the Fiscal Year 2000 302(b) 
allocations for the committee, and H.R. 1664, by a recorded vote of 24-
3. At that full committee markup, the committee also adopted an 
explanatory statement of the committee's recommendations in relation to 
H.R. 1664. That explanatory statement, which was adopted in lieu of a 
committee report, was filed with the Senate by Mr. Stevens (for himself 
and Mr. Byrd, Mr. Domenici, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Specter, Mr. 
Bennett, Mr. Hollings, Mr. Shelby, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Bayh, Mr. 
DeWine, Mrs. Hutchison, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Daschle, Mr. 
Dorgan, and Mr. Hatch). Subsequent to that markup, I ask unanimous 
consent that the following Senators be added as cosponsors: Mrs. 
Lincoln, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Helms, and Mr. Breaux.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection it is so ordered.
  Mr. BYRD. I further ask unanimous consent that the explanatory 
statement of the committee be printed at the appropriate place in the 
Congressional Record.
  There being no objection, the statement was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON 
     APPROPRIATIONS ON H.R. 1664, A BILL MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR 
                          OPERATIONS IN KOSOVO

       Mr. Stevens (for himself and Mr. Byrd, Mr. Domenici, Mr. 
     Bingaman, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Specter, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Hollings, 
     Mr. Shelby, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Bayh, Mr. DeWine, Mrs. 
     Hutchison, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Daschle, Mr. 
     Dorgan, and Mr. Hatch)
       The Committee on Appropriations, to which was referred 
     ``H.R. 1664, making emergency supplemental appropriations for 
     military operations, refugee relief, and humanitarian 
     assistance relating to the conflict in Kosovo, and for 
     military operations in Southwest Asia for the fiscal year 
     ending September 30, 1999, and for other purposes'' reported 
     the same to the Senate with various amendments and an 
     amendment to the title and presents herewith information 
     relative to the changes recommended.
       In order to expedite completion of congressional action 
     relative to the emergency appropriations contained in H.R. 
     1664, as passed by the House of Representatives, as well as 
     the emergency appropriations contained in H.R. 1141, the 
     Fiscal Year 1999 Emergency Supplemental Appropriation Act, 
     funding for both measures was included in H.R. 1141. The 
     conference agreement on that measure was passed by the House 
     of Representatives on May 18, 1999, by the Senate on May 20, 
     1999, and the bill was signed by the President on May 21, 
     1999.
       In accordance with an agreement with the bipartisan House 
     and Senate leadership, two provisions which were contained in 
     the Senate version of H.R. 1141 were deleted, without 
     prejudice, from the conference agreement thereon. Pursuant to 
     that agreement, these two provisions, the Emergency Steel 
     Loan Guarantee Program and the Emergency Oil and Gas 
     Guaranteed Loan Program, are to be considered expeditiously 
     by the Senate in a freestanding emergency appropriation bill.
       Since the conference agreement on H.R. 1141 included the 
     necessary funding for Kosovo operations, the committee 
     recommends that the text of H.R. 1664 as passed by the House 
     be amended to remove House language, and that language 
     relating to the Emergency Steel Loan Guarantee Program and 
     the Emergency Oil and Gas Guaranteed Loan Program, with 
     offsets, be added. In light of the emergency nature of the 
     funding contained in the bill for these two critical 
     programs, the committee hopes that no amendments will be 
     offered to the measure and that it can be sent directly to 
     the House. The Speaker of the House has agreed to permit a 
     motion to go to conference within one week of receiving this 
     bill after Senate passage, to allow normal appropriation 
     conferees to be appointed, and to permit the resulting 
     conference report to be brought up before the House. The 
     committee urges that this matter be expedited by the Senate 
     in order to hopefully complete action prior to the Memorial 
     Day Recess on this critical emergency facing the steel and 
     oil and gas industries and the tens of thousands of steel and 
     oil and gas workers who have recently lost their jobs as the 
     result of the massive influx of cheap and illegally-dumped 
     imported steel and oil and gas over the past year.


                 Emergency Steel Loan Guarantee Program

       The Emergency Steel Loan Guarantee Program, as reported by 
     the committee, provides a two-year, GATT-legal, one billion 
     dollar guaranteed loan program to back loans provided by 
     private financial institutions to qualified U.S. steel 
     producers. The minimum loan to be guaranteed for a single 
     company at any one time would be $25,000,000 (subject to a 
     waiver), and the maximum would be $250,000,000. A board is 
     established to administer this program consisting of the 
     Secretaries of Commerce (who would serve as chairman), 
     Treasury, and Labor. This board would have the authority to 
     determine the specific requirements in awarding these loan 
     guarantees, including the percentage of the guarantee, 
     appropriate collateral, as well as loan amounts and interest 
     rates thereon. Repayment of the loans guaranteed under this 
     program would be required within six years.
       The committee makes these recommendations in response to 
     the critical situation facing the U.S. steel industry. As a 
     result of global financial chaos, in 1998, a record level of 
     more than 41 million tons of both cheap and illegally-dumped 
     imported steel flooded the U.S. market. This represents an 
     increase of 83 percent over the 23-million ton average

[[Page S6043]]

     for the previous eight years. This wave of imported steel 
     substantially reduced demand for U.S. steel production, and 
     brought about the devastating loss of employment for more 
     than ten thousand American steelworkers.
       The U.S. Department of Commerce has found dumping margins 
     of up to 200 percent on Russian steel, up to 67 percent on 
     Japanese steel, and up to 70 percent on steel from Brazil. 
     Appropriate actions are being pursued to assess penalties 
     against those responsible for this illegal dumping of steel. 
     However, even if penalty tariffs are collected against those 
     responsible for this illegal dumping, U.S. steel mills will 
     not receive any compensation for the losses they have 
     suffered. A number of U.S. steel plants have closed or 
     declared bankruptcy since September of 1998, and a number of 
     others are close behind.
       Estimates are that jobs of tens of thousands of additional 
     steelworkers are in danger unless this illegal dumping is 
     stopped and those in the U.S. steel industry are able to meet 
     their financial obligations in order to get back on their 
     feet.


             Emergency Oil and Gas Guaranteed Loan Program

       The Emergency Oil and Gas Guarantee program, as reported by 
     the committee, provides a two-year, GATT-legal, five-hundred-
     million dollar guaranteed loan program to back loans provided 
     by private financial institutions to qualified oil and gas 
     producers and the associated oil and gas service industry, 
     including Alaska Native Corporations. The minimum loan to be 
     guaranteed for a single company at any one time would be 
     $250,000, and the maximum would be $10,000,000. A board is 
     established to administer this program consisting of the 
     Secretaries of Commerce (who would serve as chairman), 
     Treasury, and Labor. This board would have the authority to 
     determine the specific requirements in awarding these loan 
     guarantees, including the percentage of the guarantee, 
     appropriate collateral, as well as loan amounts and interest 
     rates thereon. Repayment of the loans guaranteed under this 
     program would be required within ten years.
       The committee makes these recommendations in response to 
     the critical situation facing the domestic, independent oil 
     and gas industry. Since the beginning of the most recent oil 
     and gas crisis (January 1997), the industry has lost 42,500 
     jobs. Bankruptcies have fueled the closure of an estimated 
     136,000 wells. Twenty percent of total U.S. marginal well 
     production has been jeopardized because of bankruptcies.
       The economic slowdown in Asia led to depressed demand, and 
     oversupply. The United Nation's Food for Oil program, which 
     allows Iraq to sell additional oil in an already saturated 
     market, further depressed prices. Every key indicator of 
     domestic oil and gas industry's health--earnings, employment, 
     production, rig counts, rig rates and seismic activity is 
     down.
       The committee notes that the United States was 36 percent 
     dependent when the oil embargo of the 1970s hit. U.S. foreign 
     oil consumption is estimated at 56 percent and could reach 68 
     percent by 2010 if $10 to $12 per barrel prices prevail. It 
     has been predicted that half of marginal wells located in 34 
     states could be shut-in. Marginal wells produce less than 15 
     barrels of oil and day and are the most vulnerable to closure 
     when prices drop. Yet, these wells, in aggregate, produce as 
     much oil as we import from Saudi Arabia.
       There is no current government loan program that will help 
     the oil and gas producers and the oil and gas service 
     industry. The industry tried to use our trade laws but 
     without success. In 1994, when U.S. dependence upon foreign 
     oil was 51 percent, a Department of Commerce section 232(b) 
     Trade Expansion Act investigation report found that rising 
     imports of foreign oil threaten to impair U.S. national 
     security because they increase U.S. vulnerability to oil 
     supply interruptions. President Clinton concurred with that 
     finding. Unfortunately, little action to address the problem 
     has been implemented.
       Without an emergency loan program to get them through the 
     current credit crunch there will be more bankruptcies, more 
     lost jobs, and greater dependence on foreign oil.


                                 Offset

       The committee's recommendation includes a rescission of 
     $270 million from the administrative and travel accounts of 
     the object class entitled ``Contractual Services and 
     Supplies'' in the non-defense category of the budget. This 
     category includes such things as $7 billion for travel and 
     transportation; over $7 billion for advisory and assistance 
     services; $44 billion for a category called ``other 
     services''; and almost $30 billion for supplies and 
     materials. The rescission shall be taken on a pro-rata basis 
     from funds available to every Federal agency, department, and 
     office in the Executive Branch, in the non-defense category. 
     The Office of Management and Budget is required to submit to 
     the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate a 
     listing of the amounts by account of the reductions made.

COMPLIANCE WITH PARAGRAPH 7(C), RULE XXVI OF THE STANDING RULES OF THE 
                                 SENATE

       Pursuant to paragraph 7(c) of rule XXVI, the Committee 
     ordered reported en bloc, an original fiscal year 2000 
     Department of Defense Appropriations bill, the fiscal year 
     2000 section 302(b) allocation, and H.R. 1664, by recorded 
     vote of 24-3, a quorum being present.
      Nays
Mr. Dorgantevens
Mrs. Feinstein
Mr. Durbinci
Mr. Bond
Mr. Gorton
Mr. McConnell
Mr. Burns
Mr. Shelby
Mr. Gregg
Mr. Bennett
Mr. Campbell
Mr. Craig
Mrs. Hutchison
Mr. Kyl
Mr. Byrd
Mr. Inouye
Mr. Hollings
Mr. Leahy
Mr. Lautenberg
Mr. Harkin
Ms. Mikulski
Mr. Reid
Mr. Kohl
Mrs. Murray

                            BUDGETARY IMPACT

       Section 308(a)(1)(A) of the Congressional Budget and 
     Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-344), as 
     amended, requires that the report accompanying a bill 
     providing new budget authority contain a statement detailing 
     how that authority compares with the reports submitted under 
     section 302 of the act for the most recently agreed to 
     concurrent resolution on the budget for the fiscal year. All 
     funds recommended in this bill are emergency funding 
     requirements, offset herein.

                    Five-Year Projection of Outlays

       In compliance with section 308(a)(1)(C) of the 
     Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-344), as 
     amended, the following table contains 5-year projections 
     associated with the budget authority provided in the 
     accompanying bill:

      FISCAL YEAR 1999 SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS AND RESCISSIONS
                        [In millions of dollars]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                    Budget
                                                   authority    Outlays
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Defense discretionary...........................  ..........  ..........
Nondefense discretionary........................        ^270        ^108
Mandatory.......................................  ..........  ..........
                                                 -----------------------
      Total.....................................        ^270        ^180
                                                 =======================
Five year projections: Outlays:
    Fiscal year 1999............................  ..........        ^108
    Fiscal year 2000............................  ..........        ^162
    Fiscal year 2001............................  ..........  ..........
    Fiscal year 2002............................  ..........  ..........
    Fiscal year 2003............................  ..........  ..........
Financial Assistance to State and Local           ..........  ..........
 Governments....................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: The above table includes mandatory and discretionary
  appropriations, and excludes emergency appropriations.

  

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